What’s App-ening: Apple Clips, snapchat for professionals

Welcome to What’s App-ening, your weekly source for the latest and greatest in mobile apps.

We live in a digital age. Long gone are the days when a media presence was limited to celebrities — now a media presence creates celebrities.

One of the reasons fame is becoming so accessible is that the tools to get there are easier than ever to find and use.

So, if you’re looking to become the next Philip DeFranco or Lily Singh, then this week’s app might just help you on your way to social media fame.

This week’s app is Apple Clips.

Users can make custom captions, like the one in this picture, by selecting a text style and writing their own captions. Photo credit: Leah Higginbotham

iPhones, nowadays, come pre-installed with video- and sound-editing software in the form of iMovie and Garage Band.

Generally speaking, however, it takes a while to learn to use them, and they are geared toward more intensive projects.

With the launch of iOS 10.3, Apple introduced a new video-editing software better suited for social media.

Clips, in stark contrast to iMovie, is user-friendly. On the surface, the app plays like it’s a Snapchat copycat — minus the time constraints — and lets users insert emojis and add captions and filters.

So, what exactly sets Clips apart from Snapchat and its clones then? For one, the app features a new captioning capability called Live Titles, which allows users to caption their videos as they record them.

This means that the captions, when recorded correctly, will match up exactly with the audio. This is useful for creators who would otherwise have to spend hours manually captioning videos.

The downside to this feature is that it doesn’t work well without a microphone, and as far as I can tell, the Live Titles can’t be manually edited once they’ve been recorded.

Users can also add music to their videos, either the generic Clips soundtracks, or music from their iPod library. Photo credit: Leah Higginbotham

Additionally, the Live Titles feature clearly uses the same programming as the speech-to-text feature in the native keyboard (i.e. it doesn’t auto-punctuate).

Just like with speech-to-text, grammatically correct users will have to say the punctuation they need inserted as they speak.

This also means that the video will need to be muted, so as not to have confusing audio.

Moving on, the app also allows for typed captions in a variety of fonts and stickers.

Select the sticker you want, and press and hold it to change the text. This applies to emojis as well.

There are also a number of photo-booth-style filters to place over your recordings, which can also be used on photos and videos from the phone gallery.

This app is definitely useful for anyone who makes online video or just wants a more dynamic photo experience.

Overall, I give Clips four out of five stars because the app has great features, but I’ve docked it a star due to the inconsistent quality of Live Titles.

Clips is free on the App Store, but your device must be running iOS 10.3 to download it.

Thanks for reading, Wildcats, and until next Friday, you know What’s App-ening.

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